I’d no bump, no morning sickness, no movement... I got shock of my life when doctor told me I was 37 weeks
Laura, 22, tells of surprise pregnancy
terminal cancer. Then she said, ‘I think you’re pregnant’.
“She said the only reason I can think of [for a negative test] is you’re already past 28 weeks and the hormone that gives you a positive pregnancy test has already left your body.
“I’ve no bump, no morning sickness, no feeling of any movement... I thought, ‘This has to be a mix-up’.
“I was in complete shock. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me.”
The news finally sank in for Laura, who was studying film and broadcasting at Dublin Institute of Technology at the time, when an ultrasound revealed the baby’s heartbeat.
Doctors told her that although her bump was measuring at 17 weeks, the baby’s femur length was measuring at 37 Laura studied at DIT weeks. They later explained the small bump was because the baby grew behind her placenta which was also why she could not feel the baby kicking.
Laura and boyfriend Luke had to break the news to her parents and it took a while for them to get their heads around it.
She tells her story on RTE Radio One’s Documentary On One: The Announcement, which airs tonight at 7pm.
Recalling the moment the nurse handed over her first scan photo, she said: “I remember thinking, ‘How did the baby come all this way on its own?’
“I can’t describe what it felt like to see this grainy, rubbery image, that is a baby, not any baby but my baby.”
Less than a month later on her due date Laura was back in hospital after her waters broke and she started her contractions.
She said: “Three weeks earlier I was thinking about a holiday me and Luke were planning, now we’re not having a holiday but a baby.
“I’m gonna meet this little person who’s been hiding from me for all these months.”
After 18 hours of labour Laura gave birth to a healthy baby boy who she named Finn.
Now, three years later, she is planning on going back to college to study teaching. She said: “Five years ago I would never have imagined my life like this. All I can say is I can’t remember a world without Finn, and I certainly don’t ever want to live in one without him.”
news@irishmirror.ie
Five years ago I would never have imagined my life like it is now LAURA MOLLOY ON THE SHOCK OF HAVING A BABY